Course Descriptions: Year 1-3

Year 1: High-Tech, High-Touch, High-Teach

Module 1: E-learning Platform

This course introduces 21st Century skills required for ICT-enhanced classroom efficiency and effectiveness. We will begin by ensuring access to the course platform, provided by Canvas. Then, the six modules of this course center around concepts such as comfort with ICTs, blogs, websites, ICT-enhanced collaboration, problem-solving, and student-centered learning. We will work in groups to provide hands-on demonstrations of what these concepts mean in the classroom. We will discuss and create e-Portfolios so that students can chart their professional growth and demonstrate competence in skills throughout the degree program.

Module 2: ICT-Enhanced 21st Century Learning

We will explore ICT tools designed to enhance brain-storming strategies, collaboration, creativity, affinity mapping, and design thinking. Technology activities will enhance skill levels of teachers by focusing attention on how and when to use particular tools to meet particular needs in the classrooms. Students will work on projects that they can use in the classroom so that they are familiar with what their students will experience.

Module 3: Personalized and Self-Regulated Learning

This module centers around ICT-facilitated habits of mind, communication, active learning, extended learning opportunities. student-centered learning, authentic assessment, and inquiry-based learning. We will review scenarios from Suriname to determine the degree to which these concepts can be put in place in classrooms.

Module 4: ICT Examples of Student Learning

This module asks essential questions about how ICTs and 21st century pedagogies can, indeed, result in enhanced student learning. We will explore examples of research from around the world and determine how they might fit the context of Suriname. We will work through vetted resources from TACCLE2.eu for STEM, language instruction, and other key competencies. This module sets us up for work in Year 2, where the focus will be on subject-matter mastery, based upon the expectations of Suriname’s national educational goals.

Module 5: Problem-Solving and Simulation

This module’s focus on problem solving and simulation helps emerging and working teachers expand their capacity to transform their classrooms into active learning laboratories. It begins with more brainstorming techniques, then moves into the Japanese iterative process of Lesson Study, in which students work in groups to plan, teach, reflect, and share their work. From there, students take a lesson into the community so that they can demonstrate the capacity for learning outside, as well as inside, the classroom.

Module 6: E-Portfolios in Depth

In this module, we work on e-Portfolios in order to reflect upon the ICT in Education journey. We review concepts around e-Portfolios, then provide evidence of learning to date: images, stories, examples, videos, assignments. And, equally important, we set the stage for what we need to learn about ICT-enhanced teaching and learning. We will look over templates and find ways in which students can critique each other’s work, ensuring that the skills gained in Year 1 are strengthened. This process will set the stage for students to create a Personalized Learning Plan for their practice teaching in Year 2.

Overview and Objectives

OBJECTIVES

High-Tech = the ability of ICTs to multiply teacher effectiveness and accelerate efficiency.

High Touch = the importance of hands-on learning in a supportive environment.

High-Teach = a focus on student achievement and successful classrooms

How ICTs develop higher order thinking skills

Collaborative problem-solving and group projects

e-Portfolios for teaching excellence and impacts

Preparation for practice teaching in Year 2

Year 2: Preparation, Practice, Performance

Module 7: Personalized Learning Plans

Textbooks and curriculum plans distributed by IOL

Students will practice lesson-planning through a December 8 assignment

Students will be observed by IOL inspectors, mentors, and IIED professors

A Module 7 Group Project will focus on 21st century pedagogies

Students will revise their e-Portfolios based upon new skills

All teachers are required to observe classrooms and submit observation forms

All teachers then present their lessons to mentors and IOL professors

Teachers will update their e-Portfolios with direct evidence of their skills in ICTs

Module 8: Lesson Planning and Observations

Observations in Paramaribo and Nickerie.

Personalized Learning Plans become timelines

Old and new lesson plans: transition

Preparations for peer teaching

Module 9: STEAM Projects

Next Generation Festival will advance STEM education and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. The event will showcase exhibitors, performers, speakers, partners, sponsors and advisors from all areas of STREAM, from academic centers, government agencies to cutting-edge high tech companies, museums and community organizations.

Module 10: Teach Like a Champion!

Textbooks and curriculum plans are subjected to continued review

Exercises based on: “Teach Like a Champion” by Doug Lemov, including field notes, videos, and plug-and-play applications

Continued observations and lesson-planning

Mentorship engagement

IOL requirements begin to be met

Module 11: Practice for Peers and in Schools

Mentors shall be briefed about new lesson-plan format

Mentors shall work directly with pre-service and in-service teachers to develop lessons

Peer and mentor feedback shall help Cohort 1 students to identify areas of strength and weakness

Teaching shall commence in an official capacity to work through IOL requirements

A final exam project developed by IOL, based upon 21st century pedagogies

Module 12: Systems Thinking/Community-Based Education

Systems thinking in class: framework and tools

The introduction of teaching and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Area-based learning and asset-based community development (ABCD)

Group assignment project to apply systems thinking to tangible problems

E-portfolio review

Overview and Objectives

OBJECTIVES

A new lesson-plan format shall connect to the course of study

IOL professors will support a transition from the old to new lesson plan

Groups will then transform existing curriculum into 21st century lessons

Lessons shall then be presented to mentors and IOL professors

Year 3: Ready, Set, Teach

Module 13: Internship Requirements, Management of Education Change

IOL REQUIREMENTS for STUDENTS SEEKING A BA in ICT in EDUCATION

Those seeking a BA degree are required to complete an internship for 16 weeks, 1x per day (all day). Time-frame to be determined by IOL.

Those currently teaching will receive support from IOL in the form of an official letter for school directors so that release time of one full day per week will be granted throughout the period of the internship.

Students are responsible for working with IOL to make arrangements for internships, including securing the school and working with an outside mentor and school-based supervisor.

Successful completion of 9 formal lessons implemented in the school where students are interning. required as a graduation requirement, and the criteria – based upon the NEW lesson plan introduced during the second year.

MODULE on MANAGEMENT of EDUCATIONAL CHANGE
Students will be expected to invent their own innovative practices and show that they can address a community-based problem for which education can create a positive impact. This project will be distinguished for its ICT-enhanced curriculum AND teaching practices. The students can choose whether to focus on school-aged populations or an underserved population, such as the elderly. The project shall be executed in Module 18.

ELEMENTS

A model that shows the process of building change, including inputs, outputs, the role of stakeholders, and outcomes expected

An evaluation plan that will be publicly accessible

A plan that relies upon local leadership and ownership

The open and public demonstration of impacts

STAKEHOLDERS

IOL professors

IIED professors

Community organizations

Parents

POSSIBLE TOPICS:

Youth: connect ICT4D at youth and after-school centers to address a specific problem (absenteeism or multi-grade classrooms); create a curriculum and implement it

The Disabled: show how ICT services can identify issues, improve access; build curriculum around best-practice research; find a place for implementation; do not

Seniors: provide a plan for how those over 60 can access ICT services to identify and use practical services; integrate ICTs into existing services. If you create a program, you must create the curriculum, too.

Community Participation and Assessment: establishing community priorities for advocacy, using ICT tools for public demonstrations of the people’s voice. Create or popularize apps that emphasize inclusion.

Curriculum Development: an active contribution to curriculum development for new textbooks in Suriname, in partnership with the Ministry of Education

PUBLIC POSTER PRESENTATION and E-PORTFOLIO

A poster presentation shall take place at IOL at the end of Module 18, open to teachers, school directors, IOL faculty, the Ministry of Education, and the general public, followed by a formal graduation ceremony, at which time a short documentary film of the program will be aired and diplomas distributed to successful graduates. Your e-Portfolio shall include a menu item entitled “Education Change Project,” along with the following sub-pages that describe:

Title of Project addressing the gap you want to close or the problem you want to address, along with details about the before picture, your intervention, and the intended outputs and outcomes

Objectives and Plan: your overarching goals of what you want to accomplish, and how you want to go about it (be specific)

Module 14: Adult Learning and Peer Support

Criteria for pre-service teachers and in-service teachers shall be introduced and discussed

Workshops on educational leadership and the role of ICT in Education students

Principles of adult learning for coaching colleagues unfamiliar with ICTs

Case studies designed to use real-life classroom examples to support those teachers

At least 3 formal lessons (IOL) requirements are to be formally observed and completed

Module 15: Textbook Revision and Contribution

This module will be devoted to tying together all of Year 1 and 2, plus the first modules of Year 3 into a textbook revision project, to be shared with the school in which pre-service students are either conducting their student teaching and working teachers are participating in their peer communities of practice.

Time will be allotted to work on the Capstone Project

Pre-service and working teachers are required to complete 3 of their formal lessons

Students will be given a grade level textbook and undergo a process of curriculum review, to be formally submitted to MINOV

Module 16: Peer Teaching for Newer Cohorts

In addition to completing IOL’s formal teaching requirements, ICT in Education students will be responsible for teaching a portion of Module 10 from the Year 2 program. Time will be made available, as well, to finalize the education change projects, to be incorporated into one’s formal e-Portfolio.

This module is devoted to the ensuring designated time to complete an education change project designed in Module 13. Planning time in class will be devoted to all aspects of the program, from design of inputs, outputs, and outcomes to impacts. In terms of student teaching, IOL and IIED professors will (a) assist students in executing and evaluating the education change project, to be incorporated into one’s formal e-Portfolio, and (b) observe, as well as evaluate, formal lesson plans delivered by ICT in Education students in local schools.

Module 18: Change Project Presentations | Completion of Requirements

Students will present their educational change projects to the public. Students will also be involved in an intense counseling process with IOL professors, mentors, and IIED professors to focus their career aspirations and to prepare pre-service teachers for their role as advisors to other educators. IIED professors will also spend time observing students delivering their formal lesson plans. All educational change projects shall be made available in digital form on this Need to Know website and incorporated into each student’s e-Portfolio.

At the end of this module, the ICT in Education students shall be able to prove their excellence as ICT-enabled teachers and shall be in a position to: share experiences through hands-on practice and prepare to take their place as teacher leaders and ICT advocates in Suriname’s schools.

Overview

OBJECTIVES

Year 3 demonstrates competencies in lesson planning, curriculum development, and ICT-enabled 21st century pedagogies. Students will meet requirements in (a) student teaching for pre-service teachers and communities of practice for employed teachers (b) theories and practices of child development (c) Surinamese culture, and (d) community outreach

Pre-service teachers and in-service teachers shall be separated in order to attend to their specific needs. International professors and mentors will work together in the formal evaluation of lesson plans, along with a review of the final e-Portfolio.

An educational change project (designed in Module 13 and executed in Module 18) will integrate all aspects of ICT-enhanced teaching practice in order to make an in-depth contribution to curriculum and teaching in Suriname’s schools and communities